Haggerston Pool will be open as part of the London Open House event this weekend (17th and 18th September) on Saturday from 2pm - 5pm and Sunday from 10am - 1pm. It will be possible to walk round the pool hall and the old slipper baths. Hackney Council have asked the consultants for the feasibility study to run this event and are accepting bookings for the tours which will run every 15 minutes (call 07790 424 027). If you just turn up on the door it will be possible to fit into a tour as long as they are not booked up (bookings low, so should be ok).
Haggerston Pool Community Trust have been invited by the Council to have a stall in the entrance hall, where we will have some histories of the pool and other information. We did ask if we could run the Open House event as we did 2 years ago very successfully as 800 people attended, but the Council have preferred to use their consultants.
Consultation documents asking what people would like to see happening to the pool building will be available for people to fill in on the day. Apart from at the Open House event, the consultation (see below) is only being sent out to organisations working in Hackney - so if you would like to record your opinion on whether there should continue to be a pool at Haggerston - please come along and fill in a form and talk to the consultant.
Hackney Council have commissioned a feasibility study to look at future options for the pool building. The contract for the feasibility study and the consultation exercise have been given to Renaisi and Continuum Leisure. The feasibility study will put forward 3 possible options for the pool.
There is a reference group to look at the outcomes and running of the feasibility study. We had to argue with the Council to be allowed to attend this, but now have a place. The group will run till the report is produced in December. Other members of the group are Council officers from Community and Leisure, Conservation, Property and Regeneration departments, Councillor Nargis Khan (cabinet member), Sport England, Continuum Leisure (the consultants), Primary Health Care Trust and Shoreditch Trust.
Our aim in participating in this group is to put the case that the building should be retained as a public affordable swimming pool with a mix of community facilities in the rest of the building - particularly youth activities and health services. We will report any outcomes of this meeting and the feasibility study that we know about through this newsletter.
CONSULTATION ABOUT THE FEASIBILITY STUDY
The consultation about the future of Haggerston Pool is being carried out partly by interview, and partly by sending out consultation forms. The forms have been sent to only to organisations who work with the community in the Haggerston area. There are no plans to consult individuals at this stage.
There are 2 ways of taking part in the consultation - if you are an organisation working in the Hackney and have not been sent a consultation form and would like to fill one in, please contact Kim.Wright@Hackney.gov.uk. Otherwise there will be forms available at the pool over the weekend - Saturday 2 - 5pm and Sunday 10am - 1pm at the Open House event - see earlier item.
You can also see the consultation forms and the letter that went out on the Clissold website at http://www.clissoldleisure.com/newsItems/departments/haggerstonPool
COUNCIL ENDS CONTRACT WITH LEISURE CONNECTION
Hackney Council and Leisure Connection announced that they have mutually agreed to end the contract that Leisure Connection hold to run Hackney's pools and sailing centre - 3 years into a 15 year contract. Not for profit operator Greenwich Leisure take over King's Hall, Britannia Leisure Centre and West Reservoir water sports centre from 15th September for an interim period of 18 months. They will also manage Clissold Leisure centre when it re-opens as well as the London Fields Lido and the Queensbridge Sports Centre from next April.
Greenwich Leisure also run the sports facilities in the 4 other Olympic host boroughs - Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Newham and Waltham Forest.
LONDON FIELDS LIDO PLANS
Plans are available of the new Lido at London Fields. Work is due to start in early October with the lido opening in April 2006. Please contact Mike Martin, Chair of the London Fields User Group for information about the plans on 0775 2833 487 or xm_mart@onetel.com.
CLISSOLD - RE-OPENING PUT BACK TO SUMMER 2006
Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington closed in November 2003 having cost £32 million and been open just 21 months. Hackney Council are delaying the re-opening of the centre further to Summer 2006 and spending £6.3 million on repairs and improvements to the facility. Latest Council information about this on Clissold section of Council website
Clissold campaign website www.clissoldleisure.com
News is being reported that Islington Council are 'rationalising' their leisure facilities and looking at the future of the Ironmonger Row Baths which are near Old Street tube - and currently the nearest swimming pool for many Hackney swimmers. This huge, solid building houses a swimming pool, sauna, turkish baths, gym and laundry.
The Twentieth Century Society said in their letter to get the Baths spot listed, "The Ironmonger Row Baths are threatened with demolition... We consider the building to be one of the best examples of its type and era in London, comparable to the architects’ listed baths elsewhere in town."
Islington Council told Time Out magazine "We are reviewing the Council's Leisure facilities. Yes, in the worst case scenario there is a possibility the baths could be demolished. It is expensive to maintain and sometimes it is cheaper to pull down such buildings".
London Pools Campaign recently ran a "swimming detectives" campaign where swimmers visited every pool in London to check for cleanliness, good opening hours and friendly staff using a standard questionnaire. Iron Monger Row came 7th out of the 104 pools in London in the 'swimmers favourite" category - with swimmers particularly commending the recent refurbishments at the baths.